I recently saw the movie, Avatar. At a very superficial level it's a gee-whiz, rock-em, sock-em, 3-D science fiction extravaganza - i.e. chewing-gum for the mind! As such it is very well done with a lot of action and spectacular special effects.
But transcending this puerile view, the story is an allegory, a morality play condemning America's imperial adventures on behalf of corporate economic interests, e.g. in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc..
Most people, even those who support these obscene wars, identify with the movie's primitive "people" on the planet "Pandora" (get the "Pandora's-box - all hell breaks loose - Iraq-quagmire" allusion?) under brutal attack by the all-powerful American military's exercise in "shock-and-awe" to get the extremely rare mineral, "unobtainium".
Of course, like any good allegory, the movie makes its point by exaggerating reality; there is little doubt who the "bad-guys" are and why. But also like good allegory, the point made is unquestionably valid; its aim is to get people to reexamine their presuppositions and hopefully to move them to think instead of blindly following corporate warmongers over the precipice.
It remains to be seen how successful the movie will be in the long term for influencing the American people to demand changing America's imperial foreign policy.
